flux-controller-minor-releases

Flux Controller Minor Releases

Use this skill for upstream Flux controller minor releases (vX.Y.0) only — the release that opens a new release/vX.Y.x series. Do not use it for flux2, pkg, or other non-controller repos.

Supported controllers:

• helm-controller
• image-automation-controller
• image-reflector-controller
• kustomize-controller
• notification-controller
• source-controller
• source-watcher

Important rules

• Strictly follow the documented git commands, one step at a time. Each step below has a reason. Do not invent substitutions, batch unrelated commands into one shell invocation, or insert extra verification commands between documented steps unless asked. Adapt only the version numbers.
• Never block the conversation on long-running operations. CI checks, the tag-triggered release workflow, and approval waits must be watched in the background (run_in_background) so the user can keep steering and you get notified on completion. A foreground watch blocks the session.
• Always quote PR/issue links as full URLs (e.g. https://github.com/fluxcd/source-controller/pull/2082), never the <owner>/<repo>#<number> shorthand — full URLs are clickable from the user's terminal.
• Start background watches on every PR immediately after opening it. Kick off gh pr checks <num> -R fluxcd/<repo> --watch in the background as soon as the PR is created, and the same for tag-triggered release workflows (gh run watch <id> -R fluxcd/<repo>).
• Also start a background approval watch per PR. gh pr checks --watch only covers CI, not maintainer approval. Poll the review state in the background:

  while :; do
    state=$(gh pr view <num> -R fluxcd/<repo> --json mergeStateStatus,reviewDecision --jq '.reviewDecision+" "+.mergeStateStatus')
    case "$state" in "APPROVED CLEAN") echo "$state"; break;; esac
    sleep 30
  done
  

• Every git commit must use -s (sign-off). Never include Co-Authored-By lines, your own name, or any AI attribution in commit messages, PR titles, or PR descriptions. This applies to the skill-update PR too.
• Always wait for CI to go green before merging any PR.
• You cannot approve your own PRs. If a PR was opened by the git user driving the session, ask a maintainer to approve it (or confirm it is already approved) before merging.
• Merge release PRs yourself as soon as CI is green and a maintainer has approved — act immediately so the next step (tag push, merge to main, label PR) unblocks. Applies only to PRs opened with the user's account this session.
• Review feedback on the release PR is applied by amending, not by adding new commits. The release PR must stay at exactly two commits (Add changelog entry for vX.Y.0 and Release vX.Y.0). Use git reset --soft HEAD~2 + re-commit, or an interactive rebase, then git push --force-with-lease.
• After applying a review fix, reply Fixed, thanks! on the thread and resolve it. Reply via gh api repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<n>/comments/<cid>/replies -f body='Fixed, thanks!' and resolve via the GraphQL resolveReviewThread mutation.
• Tags must be annotated and signed (git tag -s -m ...). Never create release tags through the GitHub API — that produces lightweight tags which break git tag -v verification.
• PR titles and bodies. Release-prep and label PRs use the commit subject as the title. The release→main PR uses the GitHub-default humanized branch name Release/vX.Y.x. Every PR body is a single line pointing at the flux2 minor release tracking issue: Part of: https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2/issues/NNNN.
• Do not declare the release done until every step below has run, including the final backport label PR (step 11). Tagging and merging to main are not the last step. Walk the numbered steps and confirm each one ran before reporting completion.